Sprout Nonprofit | the podcast for small shop nonprofits · Rachel Bearbower

71 | Productivity isn't the point

·22 min·2 clips

Productivity for rest, not for hustle

Sprout Nonprofit returns to the annual productivity challenge. Rachel Baerbauer frames it as a session for small shop nonprofits, with practical templates and guidance meant to help teams build systems instead of chasing big ideas that do not fit their capacity. This year the focus stays concrete. Listeners get a story collection template, a welcome series template, sample swipe copy, and a simple structure for making the emails feel authentic rather than copied. The session is built to be useful. Rachel says it will run about 90 minutes and walks through three steps: collect and write stories, write the emails, and get the emails out the door. That keeps the work manageable. It also points straight at the emotional relief she is promising, because the goal is to make new gifts feel less guilty. The show also shifts its release day. Monday is now the new home for the podcast, and Rachel asks listeners to mark their calendars and subscribe so they are ready for the weekly rhythm. She then opens up a personal note. A keynote in Washington, DC at the very end of November left her honored and a little flabbergasted, especially because the room matched her exact audience and her exact work. The topic was productivity and time management. That story becomes a bridge back into the episode's central concern: how small nonprofit leaders can work with their real capacity instead of fighting it. By the close, the tone gets more direct. Rachel names the feeling of losing focus, getting caught in task ping-pong, and ending the day with nothing done. Her answer is not a grand overhaul. She points to three systems you can implement in your calendar to return actual time to the week. The promise stays steady rather than flashy. More time, less guilt, and a little more room for the work and the life that matter.

As heard by us

A practical productivity reset for small nonprofit leaders who want systems, not hustle.

This episode looks at productivity through the lens of small-shop nonprofits, with Rachel revisiting the annual productivity challenge and the templates it offers.

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Why you'd press play

For the week your small nonprofit feels like a blur of shifting priorities.

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